Katarina waited two days before she started pulling.
Not because she needed time to think. She’d known what Cabrian’s contract was the second she’d read page three. She waited because a nine-year-old girl who reacted to a business meeting with immediate, surgical investigation would raise questions that Katarina did not want to answer.
So she waited. She ate dinner. She did her breathing exercises with Brynn. She went to school. She came home. And on the second evening, when Seris had the ledgers open on the study table and a glass of wine in her hand, Katarina sat across from her and started.
"Mama, what’s the Cabrian Trading Company?"
Seris glanced up.
"Signore Cabrian’s firm. You met him the other day."
"Yeah, but what do they actually do? Like, where are they from?"
"The central kingdoms. Tessavere, I think. They handle bulk goods, grain, textiles, that sort of thing." Seris turned a page in the ledger. "Why?"
"Just curious." Katarina swung her legs under the chair. "Do other families work with them?"
"I’m sure they do. He mentioned a few partnerships in the region."
"Which ones?"
Seris looked at her for a beat longer than usual. Then she smiled and went back to the ledger.
"You’re very interested in them, huh?"
"I like knowing things."
"The Parenna family, I believe. And the Duccetti. He mentioned both."
[Parenna and Duccetti. Got it.]
She filed the names and moved on before the questions got heavy enough for Seris to stop answering them.
The trade registry was kept in a locked cabinet in the district clerk’s office in Vellasera. Katarina was absolutely not supposed to have access to it.
She got in anyway, because the clerk was Ottavia’s cousin and Ottavia owed Katarina a favor after Katarina had "accidentally" reorganized the pantry inventory last month and saved her three hours of work.
"She just wants to look at the books for a school project," Ottavia had told her cousin. "She’s nine. What’s she going to do, commit fraud?"
The cousin had shrugged and let her in.
The registry was organized by house, which made it easy. Katarina pulled the Parenna file first.
Five-year supply contract with the Cabrian Trading Company. Below-market pricing. First right of refusal on renewal.
Termination fee: three years of contract value.
She pulled the Duccetti file.
Five-year supply contract with the Cabrian Trading Company. Below-market pricing. First right of refusal on renewal.
Termination fee: three years of contract value.
They were identical, word for word.
[There it is.]
She checked the dates.
Parenna signed theirs four years ago. Duccetti signed two years after that. Both houses had been mid-tier, struggling with the same problems the Montecardi had: declining revenue, thin margins, no leverage to negotiate better terms on the open market.
Both had taken the deal because it looked like salvation.
[Two down. We were supposed to be three.]
She closed the files, thanked the clerk, and walked out into the sun with her hands in her pockets and the full picture assembling itself behind her eyes.
"Vessa."
"Hm?"
They were sitting on the stone wall behind the school, legs dangling, sharing a bag of salted nuts that Vessa had produced from somewhere. Vessa always had food. It was one of her more reliable qualities as a business associate.
"Your moms’ shop is on the harbor road, right? They hear a lot of trade talk?"
"All day, every day! Mom says the harbor is just a gossip network with boats."
"What do people say about the Parenna family?"
Vessa crunched a nut.
"That they’re stuck. They used to source their own goods from up the coast, but a couple years ago they signed some big contract with a human trader and now they can’t buy from anyone else. My mom says old lady Parenna looks like she hasn’t slept in a year!"
"What about the Duccetti?"
"Same thing, kind of. They used to be at the market every week. Haven’t seen them in months." Vessa looked at her sideways. "Why?"
"Research."
"You say that a lot."
"One must remain informed as it pertains to all matters involving money, Vessa."
Vessa shrugged.
[Eh, as far as spies go, I will certainly have to recruit better sources in the future than "my nine-year-old classmate", but for now, she will do.]
Katarina ate a nut and looked at the harbor. Fishing boats rocked in the shallows and a cargo vessel was unloading crates at the main pier.
[So. Parenna is trapped. Duccetti is trapped. Both locked into contracts they can’t afford to leave. Both had their independent supply lines dismantled by the time the below-market pricing made them dependent. And now Cabrian shows up at our door with the same deal, same structure, same smile.]
The Ledger flickered awake.
Marseo Cabrian:
Cabrian Trading Company (subsidiary).
Parent entity: Unknown.
Contract pattern: Dependency creation via below-market pricing and prohibitive termination clauses.
Confirmed targets: Parenna (locked), Duccetti (locked), Montecardi (pending).
Assessment: Competent. Patient. Capital reserves inconsistent with mid-tier merchant profile.
[Capital reserves inconsistent. Yeah, that’s what I thought.]
A mid-tier human trader from the central kingdoms didn’t have the money to offer fifteen percent below market on three separate five-year contracts. The margins didn’t work. Somebody was bankrolling him. Somebody with deep pockets and a strategic interest in locking down Valdari coastal supply chains one desperate family at a time.
[You’re a front man, Cabrian. But for who?]
The Ledger didn’t answer that one. It only knew what Katarina knew, and right now, she didn’t have enough to name the parent entity. Just the shape of it.
It was clearly a large organization, a patient one, and one that understood exactly how to squeeze a merchant house without ever raising a fist.
She’d find it. Not today, but she’d find it.
The market festival hit Vellasera two weeks later and the entire port town lost its mind.
Every stall in the harbor district was open and twice as loud as usual. There were banners hanging from buildings, music coming from three different directions that didn’t agree on tempo, and the smell of roasted meat and spiced wine hit Katarina from a street away.
Brynn had Katarina on her shoulders. This was embarrassing but also the only way to see anything, because nine years old still meant eye-level with everyone’s waist, and that meant Katarina spent most crowded events staring directly at ass.
A lot of ass. The Valdari were not shy about showing off their bodies, after all.
[I’ve somewhat gotten used to the nudity, but it’s almost worse when they do put clothes on. Like how it’s better to imply you’ll fire someone than to outright say you will.]
Seris had gone ahead to buy vegetables. Vessa was with them. Apparently, her parents had asked if she could tag along and Kat’s parents said yes. She didn’t mind too much.
The problem was everything else.
As she said earlier, the nudity was something she’d gotten used to. The physical affection was a different story.
Katarina had known, intellectually, that her people were not shy about physical affection. She’d grown up watching Seris drape herself over Brynn at every opportunity. Every time Seris and Brynn had sex they made damn sure the whole house knew.
But nine was different from four. Nine came with the first faint hum of hormones on the horizon, and hormones turned "intellectually aware" into "very physically present."
There was a couple by the wine stall. One of them had the other pressed against the counter and they were kissing like they’d forgotten other people existed. The woman against the counter had her tunic half-open and her partner’s thigh was between her legs and... well, the wine merchant was just casually pouring glasses around them.
[Good god...]
A woman walked past in a wrap that covered exactly one tit and left the other one out on purpose, like it needed some air. She was holding hands with another woman whose skirt was slit so high Katarina could see the curve of her hip all the way up to the waistband.
[Okay.]
Another couple was chatting by an alley. The taller one had her hand openly down the back of the shorter one’s pants.
[OKAY.]
These were just bodies. She’d seen bodies before. She was a reincarnated adult woman with decades of life experience and complete emotional maturity and she was absolutely not affected by any of this.
Her face was red. But that was the sun.
[It’s the sun. Definitely the sun. Moving on.]
"BRYNN!"
The voice hit like a cannon blast. A woman shorter than Brynn by a full head and built like she could flip a cart shoved through the crowd and hugged- no, she grabbed Brynn’s ass with both hands.
Both hands, full grip, in public, like she was checking the firmness of produce at a market stall.
"Gods, Brynn, look at these tits," the woman said, pulling back to stare at Brynn’s chest. "They’ve gotten bigger. What has that wife of yours been feeding you?"
"GIULA!" Brynn grinned back at her. She swung Katarina off her shoulders, set her on the ground gently, and bear-hugged the woman hard enough to lift her off her feet.
Then, Giula kissed Brynn on the mouth. A real kiss, with tongue and enthusiasm and Brynn’s hand on the back of her head, and when they separated, Giula was laughing and Brynn was laughing and Katarina was standing between them with her brain trying to reboot.
[Who... Wha...? She just grabbed my mother’s ass and kissed her and my mother LIKED IT?!]
The casual infidelity had Kat’s mind refusing to turn back on again.
"And who’s this little thing?" Giula looked down at Katarina with bright orange eyes and a grin full of sharp teeth. "No way. This is the baby? The one you threw in the air?"
"Six feet straight up," Brynn said with pride.
"She’s got your wife’s face. Lucky kid."
Katarina opened her mouth to say something composed and mature and instead produced a noise that wasn’t a word.
"Kat, this is Giula! We ran the frontier together for years! She’s the one I told you about who arm-wrestled a—"
"Seris!"
Giula spotted Seris coming through the crowd with a bag of vegetables in each hand.
Immediately, Katarina began wondering how she was gonna deal with the fallout. Obviously, Seris had to have seen that make-out session a moment ago. Obviously, Giula was about to get decked at the very least.
[I didn’t think I’d be the daughter of a divorced couple. Certainly a subpar outcome but, it’s okay, I can deal with this.]
... Except, Giula crossed the distance in three strides, cupped Seris’s face, and kissed her full on the mouth.
Seris kissed her back. She leaned into it, one hand still holding a bag of onions, and when Giula pulled away, Seris was smiling.
[What the fuck is wrong with these people?]
"You look good, Giula."
"You look edible, as always." Giula looked Seris up and down without a shred of subtlety. "When are you two going to invite me over for dinner? And I mean *with dessert*."
Brynn laughed. Seris laughed. Giula’s hand was on Seris’s hip now and Seris hadn’t moved it.
Katarina was going to faint.
Vessa appeared at her elbow and held out a piece of candied fruit.
"You okay?"
"No."
Katarina took the candy and bit into it.
[I lived thirty-two years on Earth in the closet. I couldn’t even hold a woman’s hand in public. These people grab each other’s asses as a GREETING.]
Brynn had her arm around Giula now, introducing her to Vessa. Seris caught Katarina’s eye from across the group and gave her a small, knowing smile.
She looked around the festival. Now that she was paying attention, she saw it everywhere. Groups of three walking arm in arm. A woman sitting in one partner’s lap while another partner fed her grapes.
[Different world. Different rules. Got it. It’s okay. I understand. I... Jesus fuck...]
Her face stayed red for the rest of the afternoon.